BAZAAR’S FE­MALE PHO­TOG­RA­PHERS AT THE V&A

Ahead of the open­ing of the V&A’s new Pho­tog­ra­phy Cen­tre, guests at­tended an in­ti­mate event cel­e­brat­ing the pi­o­neer­ing women be­hind the lens of some of Bazaar’s most iconic im­ages. Su­sanna Brown, the cu­ra­tor of pho­to­graphs at the mu­seum, led the tour of a be­spoke ex­hi­bi­tion fea­tur­ing work by Diane Ar­bus, Toni Fris­sell and Genevieve Nay­lor. A high­light was a 1950 por­trait of a grace­ful model by Lil­lian Bass­man that was spe­cially un­veiled for one day (it is cur­rently rest­ing for eight years be­tween dis­plays to pre­serve the del­i­cate print). After brows­ing copies of Bazaar from the 19th and 20th cen­turies, guests were given a pri­vate tour of the Pho­tog­ra­phy Cen­tre, be­com­ing the first mem­bers of the pub­lic to see the space be­fore the Duchess of Cam­bridge’s royal visit. The gallery fea­tures a col­lec­tion of Linda McCart­ney’s fam­ily pho­tos and celebrity por­traits, re­cently do­nated to the cen­tre by her hus­band Paul, along­side a re­mark­able as­sort­ment of 19th-cen­tury cam­eras owned by the pho­to­graphic pi­o­neer

Wil­liam Henry Fox Tal­bot.

Copies of Bazaar from the 19th cen­tury in the V&amp;A’s Prints and Stud­ies room